Vehicles, such as automobiles, may include equipment for mitigating the impact of collisions, such as, e.g., passenger and side-curtain air bags in the occupant cabin. Optimal deployment of such collision mitigation equipment, however, may be dependent on the impact mode. For example, in an oblique impact mode, one vehicle may contact another vehicle at an approximately 15° oblique angle and with an approximately 35% overlap of the widths of the vehicles and generate relatively large rotational forces, as compared to other impact events. In another example, for mitigation of collisions with pedestrians, vehicles may include equipment such as bumper- or hood-mounted airbags and/or hood-lifting systems on the exterior of the vehicle. To control and employ such equipment, the vehicle is required to detect a corresponding collision—e.g. discriminate an oblique impact or a pedestrian impact from other impact events, and from each other. Current mechanisms for detecting vehicle collisions may be unable to sufficiently discriminate between impact events and/or may also suffer from drawbacks such as relatively high complexity and cost.